Reliability and Risk: A Bayesian Perspective

We all like to know how reliable and how risky certain situations
are, and our increasing reliance on technology has led to the need
for more precise assessments than ever before. Such precision has
resulted in efforts both to sharpen the notions of risk and
reliability, and to quantify them. Quantification is required for
normative decision-making, especially decisions pertaining to our
safety and wellbeing. Increasingly in recent years Bayesian methods
have become key to such quantifications.

Reliability and Risk provides a comprehensive overview of
the mathematical and statistical aspects of risk and reliability
analysis, from a Bayesian perspective. This book sets out to change
the way in which we think about reliability and survival analysis
by casting them in the broader context of decision-making.
This is achieved by:

Covering the essentials of Bayesian statistics and
exchangeability, enabling readers who are unfamiliar with Bayesian
inference to benefit from the book.

Introducing the notion of “composite reliability”,
or the collective reliability of a population of items.

Discussing the relationship between notions of reliability and
survival analysis and econometrics and financial risk.

Reliability and Risk can most profitably be used by
practitioners and research workers in reliability and survivability
as a source of information, reference, and open problems. It can
also form the basis of a graduate level course in reliability and
risk analysis for students in statistics, biostatistics,
engineering (industrial, nuclear, systems), operations research,
and other mathematically oriented scientists, wherein the
instructor could supplement the material with examples and
problems.

"The book is written by an expert in reliability analysis and it is
a very valuable source of information for mathematical models for
reliability problems ... An extensive bibliography concludes the
book." (Stat Papers, 2011)

"As the author mentions in his preface, the book can be read in
several different ways, as a text for a graduate level course on
reliability or as a source book for “information and open
problems." This book has been a joy to read for this reviewer."
(International Statistical Review, August 2008)

"Singpurwalla seems to be at his best in probabilistic modeling
of reality. He has written what must be one of the first books
reliability written from a subjective, Bayesian point of view."
(International Statistical Review, August 2008)

"The material of this book will be most profitable for
practitioners and researchers in reliability and survivability, who
will greatly appreciate it as a source of information and open
problems." (Mathematical Reviews, 2008h)

"This is a very interesting, provocative, and worthwhile book."
(Biometrics, June 2008)

"What I liked most about this book, however, is the way it
blends interesting technical material with foundational discussion
about the nature of uncertainty." (Biometrics, June
2008)

"The investigation of the theoretical models under consideration
in the book is first class…" (Law, Probability and Risk
Advance Access, September 2007)

"I feel that I have learned an effective plotting technique from
these plots…" (Technometrics, February 2008)

"…a cornucopia of probability models and inference methods
for different problems…[that] serve as a rich taxonomy that
statisticians can use to fit models…works as both an
educational tool and as a reference." (MAA Reviews, March 6,
2007)

Digital version available through Wiley Online Library

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